Thai man beheaded
2005-06-22 17:29
Bangkok - Suspected Islamic separatists beheaded a man during lunchtime at a teashop on Wednesday, the latest in a series of bold attacks across southern Thailand defying government attempts to restore peace to the area.
In separate attacks also attributed to suspected Islamic militants, two bombs were detonated in Narathiwat province, injuring eight people, including two Buddhist monks.
Lieutenant Wattana Ketamphai said, Lek Pongpla, a 34-year-old clothes vendor from northern Thailand, was shot twice before two attackers cut off his head in the teashop in Narathiwat's Joh Irong district.
Wattana said the attackers then put the head in a sack, which they dumped on a road, about two kilometres away.
Explaining the discrepancy
He earlier said that a sole attacker carried out the killing in front of three customers, but later said there were no customers present, without explaining the discrepancy.
It was the fifth beheading in just more than two weeks - up from three for all of last year - and apparently the first to be carried out in broad daylight.
More than 880 people had been killed since January last year, when a resurgent Islamic separatist movement intensified a campaign of bombings and killings in Thailand's far south.
Most of the attacks were drive-by shootings and small bombings.
Thai officials said the beheadings were meant to terrorise the minority Buddhist population in the south into moving away, and might be inspired by those in Iraq.
Imitation of situation in Iraq
Police deputy commander Thanee Thawitsri said: "This is an imitation of the situation in Iraq. They have this beheading in Iraq and they also have it here."
The provinces bordering Malaysia - Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat - were the only predominantly Islamic areas in Buddhist-majority Thailand, and southern Muslims often complained of discrimination, particularly in jobs and education.
Police said, meanwhile, suspected insurgents detonated a three-kilogram bomb on Wednesday in Narathiwat's capital district, slightly injuring two policemen, two villagers and two Buddhist monks.
The bomb was triggered by a mobile phone as the monks, escorted by police, were on their traditional morning rounds to receive alms.
5kg bomb explodes
Security forces guard monks and their temples because they had been the targets of extremists.
Later on Wednesday, a five-kilogram bomb exploded at a parking lot for city offices in the same district, injuring one person and damaging two cars and two motorcycles.
On Saturday, the beheaded bodies of two Laotian migrant workers were found in Pattani.
On June 15, the head of a 65-year-old retired Buddhist schoolteacher was found, also in Pattani; and on June 6, a Thai Buddhist rubber plantation worker was beheaded in Yala.
Notes left with the bodies in several of the beheadings said the actions were revenge for alleged repression by Thai authorities.
- AP